Dear Asda. #AsdaDads #DadsAreParentsToo

This was written a few weeks ago and I wasn’t sure whether or not to post this as I didn’t want to it to come across as woe is me but after seeing the dad blogging community getting behind the #AmazonFamilyUS I thought it was worth posting. (Basically they are campaigning to have Amazon Moms in the US changed to Amazon family as it is in most of the world)

Please see below an open letter to Asda. In fairness this could apply to a lot of brands but there’s no brand I use more commonly than Asda…Sorry Asda.

Dear Mr or Mrs Asda.

My Name is Lewis and if your reading this then welcome to my blog.

I will start with a question.

What needs to change for you to start listening to dads?

I wanted to write to you because lately something about your product has started to annoy me a little bit and I am all for talking these things through and we have known each other for such a long time this almost feels like talking to an old friend…that sell me stuff…and tempts me with offers of chocolate and pork pies. You have a lot to answer for where my waistline is concerned but I forgive you, because that’s what friends do.

I believe if something is bothering me then you should try to do something about it rather than letting it build up and build up and then all of a sudden you reach the pont of no return and you do the unthinkable…shopping at Morrisons. Of course I’m joking. Morrisons is a fine establishment and I often frequent the store but mostly because it’s location is more convenient. Where we have a choice we choose YOU dear Asda as the place to buy all our food, drink, petrol and any other household items we need. We even considered anAsda credit card at one point! We do this because we think you’re the bees knees when it comes to shopping. We prefer your stores, your prices and even your adverts. That’s right. Even Ant and Dec wont even sway me.

Anyway let’s get to the reason my kitchen is a mess and instead of cleaning up, I am writing to you. You’ll be delighted to know, tonight’s dinner was all Asda branded food. We had ‘Chosen by you’ chicken nuggets, with ‘Chosen by Kids’ Potato Letters. We even followed the main course with a desert of strawberry and apricot smart price yoghurts. Now before anybody judges my choice of evening meal for my boys, they know what they like and they like what they know and to be honest these chicken nuggets are pretty tasty!.

My problem then? Well, when I make this ‘Fan Favourite’ dinner I see something that quite frankly grinds my gears. It’s this little logo.I noticed while visiting my local store that there are quite a lot of products with this logo. I walked up and down and even around that middle bit you seem to have in all your stores where you serve pizzas, fish and hot chicken and I couldn’t find any product with a logo that says ‘Approved by dads*’. I don’t get it? You’re a forward thinking company, where’s the dad love?

I’m a stay at home dad and it’s dad who cooks and feeds the kids in this house, but yet I can’t feed them anything that’s been approved by dads.

Then when looking further I notice you don’t listen to dads at all? The board of which you take any parenting opinion is 100% dad free. Its even call MUMdex! Why do you hate dads so much? Ok maybe hate is a strong word, but you sure don’t like our voice.

This letter isn’t about whining and moaning though, it’s to be educated.

You educating me on why you chose to be so mum-centric. (I am sure there is a very good reason. Mums know their stuff alright) but also me educating you on the fact that it’s not just mums that use your product and to truly have a “Parenting” opinion, you need to listen to mums AND dads.Parenting isn’t a race. nobody should be winning but our children but as mums and dads it should be the taking part that counts.

I don’t even know if anybody from Asda will read this but I will certainly try to get some answers as to how we can get some dads involved in MUMdex…Maybe we should have our own..Call it DADsda? 🙂 I am yet to find something equally catchy for parents (Mum & dadsda? PARENTdex?) Of course I’m joking (Although I should copyright “dadsda” just incase!) but my meaning is serious and the question is still the same.

What needs to change for you to start listening to dads?

I look forward to hearing any answers you are kind enough to provide. Feel free to get in touch through dadwhoblogs@gmail.com or Dadwhoblogs.

Yours faithfully Lewis (Also known as Dadwhoblogs.)

I have also sent this letter through e-mail and via any other digital channels I can find.

Am I taking this too far? I hope this comes across as the light-hearted letter it was intended to be, but the sentiment exists for many brands. When it comes to kids it seems that only mums matter and I am sure (As your reading this blog) you feel like I do, that this isn’t true anymore.

Nicely done – I don’t go to Asda (Tesco for me!) but have seen the logo an it pisses me off too. I could go on a rant but will refrain – end of the day, dads matter just as much as mums and everything should be ‘approved by parents’ etc. It feels like over the past few months things have changed – there’s been some more positive portrays of dads in the media and Iceland even replaced ‘that’s why mum goes to Iceland’ with ‘that’s why Peter goes to Iceland’. Small steps, but progressive nonetheless – hopefully Asda will follow suit!